


what he doesn't say

by ffantastic



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: A little angst, Ambiguous/Open Ending, M/M, introspective, sunset scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-18
Updated: 2019-11-18
Packaged: 2021-02-12 13:20:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,034
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21477049
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ffantastic/pseuds/ffantastic
Summary: Keith talks through action.But Lance deserves words.
Relationships: Keith/Lance (Voltron)
Comments: 20
Kudos: 83





	what he doesn't say

**Author's Note:**

> this was written for a fic/ art exchange in the klance forever groupchat on twitter, for the prompt "unspoken" given to me by amelie! i hope you'll enjoy it :)

Keith talks through action. 

Not that he never says words – but sometimes, words aren't enough. Sometimes, the words take a long time to grow into something meaningful, something that can convey as much as his actions do. When something, someone, matters a lot to him, it takes months, years, longer to condense a feeling, a conviction, a dedication down to his bones into letters, sentences, syllables on his tongue. And when his lips part after months, years, longer, and his tongue shapes something profound, and it's remarkable because people don’t expect him to be a profound person, he wants to tell them it's been a seed growing into a seedling into a tree inside of him, and he just managed to devolve a leaf of it. But similes never come out right, when he has to form them with his mouth. 

The words for Lance had seemed incoherent at first: Not like anything that Keith could ever say out loud. Lance is so many things, and for each of those things easily reduced to one word, there are two that need a sentence, a paragraph, a novel. Keith is not a novelist, but he keeps on collecting the words, and speaking through his actions. 

_Lance is the paladin of the Red Lion. _

A simple statement, but also a transformation, a development, the wrong puzzle pieces fitting together. When the sentence forms in his mind, late at night when Keith would usually have been fast asleep, but now is still staring at the blank, dark ceiling, thoughts racing, after those bleary battle days, a smile cracks through all the worries. Lance was Red's and Red was Lance's, and not only does Keith trust his former lion to be in good hands, is elated at their new connection, but Lance is so much closer to him now, so much more important to Keith, to the team, too. Lance is growing to be something so much more, along with the words. 

_Lance always has his back. _

With being Red's paladin comes the task of right hand, support system, and Lance fills it like he doesn't even need to think about it, like he'd been vying to be Keith's second-in-command, his co-leader, from the start. Emotional support as well as physical, a hand on his shoulder – Lance always has his back. The second sentence forms solid in the middle of a battle, half Lance's own words, but so true either way, both ways, any way. Keith stares back at him, breathless awe overtaking the adrenaline: Lance, blaster raised in well-earned arrogance, and a smile on his face that doesn't twitch into a smirk. Keith shakes himself out of it, leaps back into battle, but he doesn't forget. So long as Lance is there, he will always have a safety net, someone to fall back onto, and he fights and hopes to be the same for Lance. 

_Lance knows exactly who he is –_

Lance is a lot of things. A jack of all trades, at least passable, mostly great, difficult to pin down. By the time they are back on Earth, Keith still hasn't catalogued all of Lance's sides and oddities, still hasn't understood the core of him. Looking at someone from the outside and trying to fit them into a comprehensive list of talents and traits can never work, anyway, and maybe someone who looks at Keith wouldn’t understand him either. But he does want to understand Lance, like he understands himself. So maybe it's a wish more than a statement. Keith wishes Lance knew who he was deep down, because he wants to get to know that deep down, too. 

_and what he's got to offer. _

It isn't the most well-known thing about Lance, but it also isn't a secret or something he kept hidden with all his might, that he doesn't always feel like the most useful person: To the team, to the world, to the cause. To anyone. Maybe even to himself. He can hide it, and he's not a depressed shell of a person. But it is a weird dichotomy, the Lance who likes himself so much, who is so integral and important to so many people and things, still so lost in himself sometimes. And so, another wish, for Lance to see himself the same way other people see him, the way Keith sees him. 

These sentences are fully formed, ready to be said aloud. But there is so much more, yet unformed, and a sentence that he's not sure he could ever say at all. It had been formed early, maybe even before any of the others, before he had contemplated saying any of it. It's the truest, the simplest, and the only one he was afraid of saying. Because Keith has fallen in love with Lance, and it's the undercurrent of all other sentences for him: How much he means. How much he is. How much he can be. How much Keith wants to be even just a fracture of that for Lance as well. 

He might never get the opportunity to say any of it at all, not about love, not about friendship and support and loyalty. But he wants it with every fiber, every heartbeat, every clench of his fingers, he wants it despite the fear: To tell Lance he is an amazing friend, a valuable team mate, and to never underestimate himself, to look him in the eyes and say _I fell in love with you somewhere along the way_ and not worry about anything else. But Lance doesn't feel the same way, has his sights set on someone else, and saying the last part out loud would do Lance little good. 

Keith is trying to tell himself he shouldn't say it, should listen to the fear. But even if Lance won't say any of the words back, he deserves to know. 

The opportunity is never going to come, but Keith thinks, if Lance were here now, if he were watching the sunset with him, Keith wouldn’t be able to hold back any of the words at all. It is the perfect place for a love confession. Even an unrequited one. 

_The Lance I fell in love with. _

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading! please leave kudos and maybe a comment if you enjoyed it and check me out on [twitter](https://twitter.com/cheeseroyalty)!


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